[Gretl-users] decimal separator bug

[Ignacio Diaz-Emparanza]

On Wednesday 19 September 2007 15:26:36 Allin Cottrell wrote:
>
> Here are three options:
>
> 1) Totally scrap the locale separator: all input and output uses
> the decimal point, with no option. [With the exception of reading
> and writing delimited text data files.]
>
> 2) Keep the locale separator as an option for output display, but
> always use the decimal point on input.  (Change the dialogs that
> currently accept ','.)
>
> 3) Try for consistent acceptance of ',' in input dialogs.  We
> _could_ (though I'm not recommending this) modify the "define a
> new variable" dialog to interpret ',' as decimal and ';' as
> argument separator.  We'd then do a simple character substitution
> on the input string to turn it into canonical form.
>
> If we were to go for option 2, we could modify the relevant dialog
> strings and the manual to clarify the fact that decimal comma is
> purely a display option.

I also vote for option 2). The user may always activate option 1) unselecting 
the "use locale settings for decimal point" option in the preferences.

(I should warn that in my PC, that uses Kubuntu Linux with UTF-8 encoding, and 
gretl in Spanish, the "use locale settings ..." does not work. In 
collaboration with Allin I  tryied several changes in my gretl configuration 
but we could not resolve the problem. So I have this option disabled in my 
gretl preferences)



-- 
Ignacio Diaz-Emparanza  
DEPARTAMENTO DE ECONOMÍA APLICADA III (ECONOMETRÍA Y ESTADÍSTICA)                                        
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